Tuesday, 9 October 2012

Parfaits - White chocolate mousse, strawberry sauce and learnings

I have a sudden desire for parfaits. I think I like the layers, just like I like wearing stripey tops and stripey socks. A few weeks back I made one with chocolate mousse, nutty cherry, strawberry and creamy layers. It didn't quite work. Yet it was a great learning process that helped me make my more recent success - white chocolate mousse with strawberry sauce.

Both parfaits began with a glut of strawberries. Both times they fascinated Sylvia. The first day I made them was a day that started with feeding her with an airplane spoon. I told her the spoon had cargo to drop off in her mouth. The day ended with me frantically pitting dried cherries as fast as I could while Sylvia ate them as fast as she could rather than eating her dinner. I managed to return her attention to her dinner and then she enjoyed some chocolate mousse and strawberry puree. I liked how healthy they were, but the sweetest moment was when she told me my cargo was yummy.

The flavours were a great combination. I loved the chocolate mousse and the strawberries. However the nutty cherry layer didn't quite work in a parfait but was like a delicious energy ball by itself, if a little gooey. A cooked biscuit layer would be preferable but I was trying to avoid too much work. I also disliked the creamy layer. I it was too creamy and I could taste the tofu. E (who loves cream) loved it. As usual, he thought there was too much fruit.

The chocolate mousse in the first parfait was a recipe of silken tofu, banana and cocoa from Tinned Tomatoes. So simple and healthy that it was amazing just how deliciously creamy it tasted. Unfortunately the strawberry layer just sunk and ruined my efforts at fancy layering. I didn't quite get the right balance of quantities and ran out of some layers sooner than others.

When I bought some rice milk white chocolate, I remembered seeing a beautiful white chocolate mousse recipe. It was made with cream, white chocolate and egg. I've never been very fond of mousse because of the cream and egg. Now here was a chance to remake lighter and totally vegan. White chocolate is usually too sweet for me but the strawberries were tart enough to make it most pleasing.

Sylvia was not so compliant when I made the white chocolate mousse. It was quicker and simpler. Yet she didn't take to the white mousse. Finally she made me cross by tipping some of the strawberries into the mousse layer. I hurried her off to bed. When I came back, I was surprised to find that the strawberries were sitting on the mousse rather than mixed in.

I loved this white chocolate mousse with strawberries. It was thick and slightly grainy. (I also found that when I left it in the fridge for a few hours the banana in the mousse developed a greyish layer that could be scooped off or stirred in.) I had learnt from my first parfait that the glasses I used were too big. I found some smaller wine glasses and didn't fill them to the top.

Sylvia had some the following evening. She mixed them together and told me she liked the pink icing mousse. As this tale demonstrates, we all have individual tastes in this household! But I am confident that I can find more parfaits to please.

Blitz the white chocolate mousse in a blender until smooth. Scrap out the mousse into a large bowl to serve from or into individual glasses. Don't bother to wash the blender and add in the strawberries and blend into a sauce. Either top the mousse in the glasses or pour into another bowl for serving.

That chocolate cherry mousse looks and sounds like just my sort of thing. I now can't believe I skipped over tofu in my vegan mousse experiments - I thought it would end up denser than yours look, but these are light and fluffy as mousse should be. I'm liking the layering too. I wish your cargo could fly across to my house!

thanks kari - highly recommend you give silken tofu and banana a go in mousse - the combination works well to make it creamy and thick(ish) but not at all dense. Made that chocolate mousse again last night and sylvia loves it.

Thanks Lorraine - I really want to try more parfaits - they are fun and make me feel healthier than baking cake. I liked the white chocolate - I think it might have been a little grainier than regular dairy white choc but definitely would eat it if I was dairy-free

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Recipes and reflections in which our vegetarian heroine dreams of being tall and graceful as a giraffe; being a goddess in the kitchen; and being gladdened by green gadgets, green food and green politics because green is the colour of hope. See About Me for more info.